What salary do you need to live in Davenport, IA?

The cost side of living in Davenport

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $752, $974 and $1,201 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL. The largest of those is 60% more than the smallest.

On the ownership side, the typical owner-occupied home is valued at $174,100. That is only 2.4× the area's median household income of $72,738, a low ratio by national standards.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Davenport's overall prices at 89.1 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $112,260 would elsewhere.

Davenport: the pre-tax income for each grade

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $21,000, Okay at $45,000 and Comfortable at $91,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 13% of income and the median home is 1.9× income.

Reaching Royal takes $266,000 — 2.9× the Comfortable line — because the last points come slowly once rent is already a small share.

These lines come straight from the calculator's formula: the income is raised until the two-bedroom score crosses each cutoff, then rounded up to the next $1,000.

What different incomes look like in Davenport

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Okay, with scores from 56 to 64.

Read down the two-bedroom column and the first Comfortable row is $100,000, consistent with the $91,000 line above.

Davenport compared with every US metro

Ranked against all 387 metros, Davenport sits 309th on overall price level and 315th on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 343rd.

Next to Davenport on the national rent ranking: Casper, WY ($974) and Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA ($973).

Davenport vs. the rest of Iowa

How Davenport stacks up against its state: $974 for a two-bedroom against Iowa's $989, $174,100 for the median home against $208,000, and a price level of 89.1 against 87.8. The metro also reaches into Illinois; it is compared with Iowa, home of its first-named principal city.

On statewide medians, a two-bedroom budget reaches Comfortable at $96,000 — above Davenport's $91,000 line.

Within Iowa, the metros closest to Davenport on rent and overall prices are Cedar Rapids, IA, Ames, IA, and Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $100,000, $107,000, and $91,000.

Davenport's median income on the scale

The median household in the metro earns $72,738 (ACS 2020-2024). Run through the calculator with two bedrooms, that scores 59, Okay. That falls $18,262 short of the $91,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. Statewide, the Iowa median household ($75,059) grades Okay on the state's own medians. Since a household can have two or more earners, compare it with a combined income rather than one paycheck.

These are pre-tax estimates from public statistics, not financial advice.